Nachtlandschap met vleermuisachtige wezens c. 1900 - 1922

This is an etching by Marcel Roux, and there's something about the cross-hatched lines of it that feels both precise and totally out of control. I can just imagine him hunched over the plate, his tools scratching away as this weird, winged creature takes shape. I feel like I'm looking at a dream... or maybe a nightmare? It makes me think about how much control an artist really has. Roux seems to have embraced the chaos, letting the lines build up and create this intense, otherworldly atmosphere. There's definitely something Goya-esque about it, a little bit of that dark romanticism mixed with a healthy dose of the grotesque. You can see a similar impulse in other artists grappling with the unknown, like Dürer or Redon. It's like they're all having this conversation across time, trying to capture something that's just beyond our grasp. And it's the struggle, that tension, that makes the work so compelling.